Why is ESG important for your brand?

Let’s start by going back to the purpose of branding. How you position your brand is about establishing a space in your customers’ minds – ensuring they can perceive your brand in the way that you intended. But in a world where transparency, cultural changes and business are increasingly put under the microscope, branding has become more complex and needs to do more than ever before.

We all know that the world has been through huge change over the last two and a half years – the pandemic alone influenced a lot of transformations in the corporate landscape, as well as a cultural shift outside of it. People are now more aware than ever of social inequalities, the ongoing impact of climate change, and how businesses conduct themselves – and this has encouraged brands to consider not only what they offer to the market, but how they run their business and the impact this has on people and the planet.

So what does this mean?

It means that what your brand stands for must work in harmony with your ESG strategy and how you run your business. In simple terms, it’s about walking the walk as well as talking the talk, and the way to communicate this effectively is by creating tangible, measurable benchmarks and being open, honest and transparent.

How do you effectively embed ESG within your brand?

Once you have an ESG strategy and clearly defined framework, you can start to communicate your messaging and really embed it within your brand.

The first step is to start tailoring your messages to your different audiences (such as shareholders and consumers) and produce content that will really resonate with them. You’ll need to work out which platforms you’ll use for these communications. You might choose social media for your external comms, but do you have particular channels that resonate with your customers vs the wider consumer audience? And for your internal comms, are there different channels for employees vs senior stakeholders?

Regardless of audience, it’s important to break down your messages into simple language using clear, concise information, underpinned with transparency and measurable facts. This demonstrates that you really can walk the walk, and your audience will be able to understand better and take away what they need to know.

How regularly should you update your audience?

Regular updates – you can utilise your social channels to deliver stories regularly, helping to build your brand in relation to your ESG strategy. It might as simple as ‘x number of employees undertaken training’, ‘ we’re working with a new supplier who shares the same vision of x’, ‘we’ve developed new programmes for staff to support their wellbeing’, or ‘we’ve made some sustainable updates to the business infrastructure’. All these small but consistent messages should have measurables in place to help to build your brand reputation.

Occasional updates – to capture a broader picture of achievement and tell a deeper story, you might want to communicate larger updates every few months or so. Video and animation can be very powerful tools here, as well as infographics and live webinars, allowing you to provide detail around the changes you have implemented to reach your vision. This gives you space to share more information and encourage an open, transparent and authentic narrative. Remember, ESG is part of your brand, it’s being communicated as part of your brand, and its messaging is reflective of your brand and how you are positively contributing to the world.

Annual updates – you should publish an in-depth review of your ESG each year, capturing the highlights and challenges you’ve experienced, faced and overcome. Brand integrity comes hand-in-hand with transparency, so it’s important to document any losses or pitfalls as well as your achievements. It’s good to remember that your ESG strategy should be constantly evolving, and it’s very much ok to adapt and change your strategy to mirror the outside world.

However often you decide to update your audience, your ESG communications should be treated with the same amount of love, care and attention as any other campaign you produce. Because you aren’t just selling a product, you’re strengthening and building your tribe who want to support you to make a meaningful difference.

If you’re looking for support with how to embed ESG within your brand, get in touch to see how we can help.